Bring A World Alive
by IncompetentGuy
Summary: 2 developers set out to recreate the world of RWBY - as a VRRPG. One of them happens to be Kirito's friend, and the latter is soon invited to be one of the first new Huntsmen and Huntresses to experience Remnant Online. But soon, something goes wrong and it's up to Kirito and friends to resolve this... and discover a shocking secret?
1. Chapter 1

**Take a guy whose schoolwork is in full swing, ideas for 3(no, make that 4) new stories, writer's block for an old one and hardly any time to even write, and you have me.**

 **Sorry for the inactivity. In the meantime...**

 **Oh, and this takes place after the Phantom Bullet arc(Gun Gale Online). If side stories count, then it's after Mother's Rosario.**

* * *

Floor 22, New Aincrad, Kirito and Asuna's Log House.

"Kirito, I'm curious..." Lizbeth asked. "You have any plans on playing something else? Like... another VRRPG?"

"What? No, not really. I mean, I've transferred to Gun Gale Online in the past for a while, but that was for a serious matter. Besides, I'm having enough fun with my friends here, right?"

"Glad to hear that!" The girls(Asuna, Lizbeth, Silica, Sinon, and Leafa) all said at once, resulting in looks from each other.

"Chick magnet." Klein whispered to Kirito.

"Shut up" came the reply.

* * *

A few months ago

"You know what I'm thinking, don't you, Seth?"

"Nick, you and I both know that making another game for RWBY isn't a bad idea."

The two friends sat in the Dicey Cafe, discussing their latest project.

"Yeah. But I'm thinking bigger." Nick said. "You ever heard of VRRPGs?"

"Stuff like ALfheim Online?" Seth replied with interest. He'd played that.

"Yes. I'm thinking, Seth..."

"That we create a VRMMORPG of the RWBY world? That would be absolutely genius!"

"You stole the words right out of my mouth, pal."

* * *

Back to the present...

"Well... I'm going to logout now." Kirito opened his menu. "Bye guys."

Kazuto lifted the NerveGear off his head. Rising up, he decided to check his email before he went down. One particular email caught his interest.

It was from a friend named Seth.

"I've got a new VRMMORPG you might like." The email read. "Are you familiar with a series named RWBY?"

Yes he was. Kazuto had to admit, it wasn't bad for an anime that was unusually 3D.

"If you like to, maybe you could take some time to transfer your avatar over and be one of the first to play the game - we're calling it 'Remnant Online' or RNO for short - I'd be grateful. Oh, and you can ask your friends too, if you like."

Being a Huntsman didn't sound so bad either.

"I've included a tutorial-like guide for you to get started below. Oh, and the whole Semblance thing... I'll you about that later. It's a pretty interesting system."

* * *

Later, in the courtyard of Beacon Academy...

"I'm tirrrrred!" Ruby groaned in exhaustion of her team's training. "Can we stop?"

"Already?" Weiss replied, raising an eyebrow.

"You do realize that we've got a test in Combat tomorrow, don't you?" Blake said.

"Hey, everyone needs a break every now and then! Are you guys even any bit tired?" Ruby pouted.

"She's got a point." Yang spoke up. "We'll just take five then continue."

* * *

Meanwhile, Kirito wandered through Beacon after having entered this new game he'd been introduced to yesterday. Admittedly, he'd lied to Asuna. And Leafa. And Lizbeth, Silica, Sinon-

Oh yes, and he was also lost. Beacon Academy was bigger than he thought.

On the other hand, he

That's when he spotted a group of 4 people up ahead, in the courtyard, sitting down on a bench. He noticed that this was Team RWBY from the guide.

"Maybe they could show me around..."

* * *

"Now, enough rest!" Weiss stood up. "You guys do know that staying still for too long kills your urge to exercise, right?"

Team RWBY were soon up and ready. "Man, I actually wish we could fight some other team right now, instead of just ourselves." Ruby said.

Careful what you wish for.

"Ahem..." They heard someone clear their throat. When Ruby turned, she saw a boy wearing mostly a black outfit(yes, we know you're edgy).

Team RWBY exchanged looks.

"But it's been halfway through the first semester already." Blake said. "How come you don't know the layout of Beacon yet?"

"Actually, guys... I don't think we've seen him before. Not at Beacon." Ruby said. She looked cautiously at Kirito.

"Uh... actually, maybe I'll just tour myself around." He nervously replied. "Sorry for bothering you guys."

"Wait!"

Kirito turned around.

"S-sorry, we didn't mean to chase you off like that..." Ruby apologized. "I mean, we could show you around Beacon if you want..."

"No, no it's okay." He started to walk away again, but stopped. _"What am I doing?"_ He thought. _"The main protagonists of RWBY are standing right there! This is my chance to be able to challenge them!"_ After all, he was told that he should go ahead and battle with them if he could.

"Actually, there is something I need to ask you, girls..." He paused. "...and Ice Queen."

"Hey!" Weiss hissed. She hated being singled out like this.

"What? I thought you liked recognition?"

"It's too formal. Just call me Weiss."

"OK..." Kirito paused again. "...Ice Queen."

Now Weiss was starting to get irritated. "Grrr..."

"That's enough!" Blake interrupted. "Now, what was it you wanted to ask of us?"

"Oh, this may be a bit sudden, but... would you mind if we had a battle?"

Team RWBY looked at each other. Again.

"Battle?" Yang replied with interest. "You mean like, you take on each of us one by one, or...?"

"Me. Versus all of you." Kirito said to RWBY's surprise. "At once."

Silence. Then Ruby motioned for her teammates to "huddle up."

"He's got guts to make that kind of challenge." Yang whispered. "And doubtlessly some skill, too."

"We don't know what his Semblance is. And we don't know what his weapon looks like, so..." Blake added.

"I have an idea." Ruby chimed in. "Why don't we just overwhelm him with our numbers? There's four of us and only one of him, after all."

"Guess we don't have a choice." Weiss replied. Team RWBY then scattered to face Kirito.

"Oh, and one more thing. I will only attack once you attack. Sound fair?" Kirito (should I call him Jesus-kun from now on?) said.

"Uhh..." Ruby was taken aback even further. "...okay?"

She held up 3 fingers. "Okay, guys, on my count. 3...2..."

The challenger just stood there.

"1..."

Kirito examined his hand.

"Go!" Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang all rushed at Kirito, weapons extended. The four make contact with him at exactly the same time, creating a large cloud of smoke surrounding their impact.

Ruby thought she heard clanging. When the smoke cleared...

* * *

 **Cliffhanger.**

 **Took me a while to finish writing this. Not to mention all the other stuff too... Meh, nevermind. At least it's something.**

 **Stay tuned!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Fight scene may be bad. Skip to next chapter for interesting plot or stay for action. Your choice.**

* * *

CLANG!

The sound of Team RWBY's weapons clashing echoed across the courtyard.

When the cloud of smoke that surrounded them cleared, Ruby saw that, separating her team's weapons and their challenger Kirito, was an ethereal sword. She also noticed that he was in a one-foot-forward stance, indicating that the simultaneous attack by her team did knock him back somewhat.

But it wasn't long until Kirito flicked his sword forward and sent Team RWBY flying back. With a quick glance across the four Huntresses, he then leapt toward…

"Weiss!" Ruby called out. Kirito had chosen to attack Weiss first because he was familiar with her weapon – a rapier, which Asuna also wielded.

Weiss only had just enough time to block Kirito's attack. She dashed backwards with the help of a glyph, Yang taking her place and almost managing to hit him. "Oh no you don't!"

But she hit nothing.

Because Kirito had already very quickly flung himself towards Weiss, in an attempt to apply constant pressure.

"Aah! Help!" She cried out.

"Checkmate!" Ruby exclaimed, referencing the team attack. Immediately Blake approached from around the side to support Weiss.

But even with two blades clashing against him, Kirito didn't show any signs of being overwhelmed whatsoever – in fact, he was either parrying or dodging all of their attacks. "Yang! Get him!" Ruby yelled to her sister.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kirito saw Yang moving towards him with speed, her eyes now the color of red. She was already close – less than a half second to impact.

But that was all the Black Swordsman needed.

More smoke erupted, then cleared to show…

"Weiss! No!" Blake cried at the sight of their teammate lying unconscious not far away from them. Kirito, meanwhile, had already jumped back a few feet to recover.

"Guys? Huddle up, quickly." Ruby said to Yang and Blake. " It doesn't look like we can get a hit on him. He's ridiculously fast."

"You're right. We might have underestimated him a little bit." Blake added. "Though he doesn't look like he has any ranged methods of offense."

"Great observation. OK, use our guns to harass him from afar, but continue to engage if he approaches. OK, go!" Ruby leapt back and slammed her scythe on the ground, pointing the barrel at Kirito. Blake and Yang jumped to the side.

Kirito quickly reacted by jumping towards Ruby – seemingly dodging Ruby's sniper bullets. "Bumblebee!" Ruby yelled when he was only a few feet away.

She quickly pulled her scythe up to block the incoming slash – but she guessed wrong. Kirito instead jumped and bounced himself off the handle of Ruby's scythe, slashing Blake and Yang's projectiles flying toward him in front of Ruby.

He landed and slashed Blake, who was in front of him – but she evaporated into black smoke, revealing the real Huntress behind her shadow clone. He lunged forward, dodging Yang's attack, and clashed with the cat Faunus for a while.

Blake soon hopped a distance backwards and leaving Kirito to hit a clone, tagging Ruby in.

The ethereal sword and the large scythe clashed. Kirito could see Ruby looking at him as the struggled over each other.

"Why?" She asked. "Why are you doing this?!"

The swordsman seemed to struggle in finding an answer. "Uhh…"

Ruby then shoved him, herself skidding backwards. Blake came in again and took her place.. Dodging several more of Yang's Ember Celica shots, he engaged Blake. Kirito quickly spotted an opening – a big one.

He brought his right elbow up to feint hitting her with it – then quickly stopping and slashing her across instead.

"Blake!" Ruby tried to shoot him.

Kirito didn't stop, immediately flanking and striking Blake from four sides and creating…

"A square of slash waves?!" Yang exclaimed. The light waves forming the square dissolved, followed by a flash on Blake's torso.

Kirito lunged backwards to distance himself from team RWBY. Blake staggered a bit – then collapsed.

"Blake!" Ruby cried out. But she was quickly targeted by Kirito again, the latter lunging toward her – but being punched off to his right by Yang.

"Gah…she's strong, I'll give it to her." The swordsman thought as he got up. He saw Ruby jump up and ready to slam her scythe down on him, but he quickly dodged and clashed with her.

Kirito noticed he was kind of having trouble dealing with multiple enemies of Team RWBY's skill level, having being hit quite a few times already. So when Ruby prepared an overhead slash, he had an idea.

He dodged, and saw Ruby's red cape floating in the air. He quickly stabbed the top of the cape and stuck his sword to a lamp pole – effectively rendering Ruby stuck.

"Ruby!" Yang exclaimed.

Her eyes suddenly turned red, her hair about to ignite. "Well now you've gone and DONE IT!" She then dashed towards Kirito, who now seemed defenseless as the sword in his hand was being used to trap Ruby. But she heard clanging when her fist hit him.

In Kirito's hand was… another ethereal sword!?

The swordsman quickly took advantage of Yang's surprise and slashed her several times before pushing her back. The enraged Yang quickly recovered and continued to attack.

Ruby could only watch the two fight as she unsuccessfully attempted to free herself. The only thing she could do was try and shoot Kirito with her Sniper-Scythe – if only she hadn't just dropped it.

Then Yang stumbled – and Kirito was quick to capitalize. He brought his knee up to kick Yang in the stomach – of course it didn't do much. Then he leapt back.

Ruby, still struggling, saw a hand pull the sword out.

She looked up. "Is he gonna use both swords to fight Yang?!" Ruby thought, urgently picking up her scythe.

Yang recovered saw Kirito lunging at her with his sword pointed forward, his other hand behind his back, and on instinct brought both her arms up to block.

Which was kind of a mistake. Her using both arms to block, not the blocking itself. Though come to think of it, that's already a big enough flaw on its own.

Kirito's attack is deflected, but before Yang could counter, she felt a cut from her unattended side. Reeling back, her eyes flashed the sight of Kirito holding… another sword?

"Yang!" Ruby cried out, and tried to cut him off from unleashing a combo on her sister, but it all happened too fast – Kirito's slashing, stabbing, sidestepping and leaping's speed was unreal, even for Ruby, who yet felt as if it was an eternity.

Leaping over Yang with overhead slashes, Kirito landed with a crouch behind her, finally stopping. The yellow-haired brawler fell on her knees, then lay there on the ground, unconscious as well.

Ruby felt her hands clenching into fists, gripping her scythe hard. She couldn't take this anymore.

"HEY!" She shouted with rage within her. Weiss and Blake had woken up, having just witnessed the last moment of Kirito's duel against Yang.

Ruby rushed to in front of him, her scythe transitioning into a sniper rifle. Kirito noticed the look of fury on her face.

"What is this all about?' Ruby pointed her rifle at him. "Why do you have to hurt my team like that?! What are you doing here anyway?!"

Kirito was silent. Maybe just walking straight into Beacon and challenging Team RWBY like that wasn't really that good of an idea.

"I…" She stuttered. "…you… I'll give you 3 seconds!"

"To do what?" He asked, surprised.

"3 seconds to… say you're sorry!"

"Is that it?" But Ruby was already aiming down Crescent Rose's scope, silently counting down. Her blood was still boiling.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry for wrecking your friends like that for no real reason!"

"Yang's my sister, not just a friend!"

"And your sisters! Whatever!" Kirito noticed Ruby's eye looking at his left shoulder through her scope. "Bottom line is, I'm sorry!"

"Apology…" She gritted her teeth. "DENIED!"

A flash and a bang signaled Ruby firing her sniper. But he brought his sword quickly to what was apparently her target, and just when Ruby thought Kirito would collapse, she heard the faint sound of metal clanging.

There were two objects glinting against the sun, lying on the floor in front of Kirito. The rest of Team RWBY gasped in surprise.

Because those two objects were a bullet. Or at least, what's left of it after getting sliced in half.

Ruby dropped her scythe, mouth open, eyes wide. "No…no way…how…you…"

Kirito's ethereal swords then dissolved in his hands, leaving him and Ruby facing each other in the countyard, just feet away from each other.

* * *

 **Took a bit longer than I thought. I need time to improve, okay? Okay. Got it.**

 **Well, stay tuned!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So the past few weeks have been quite a conflict of interests. StarCraft, Elsword, Assassin's Creed and even Hearthstone have found their way into my free time.**

 **But of course I wasn't going to forget about this.**

* * *

Ruby stared at the two bullet halves in awe. Kirito had seemingly done the impossible – parrying her Crescent Rose's shot at nearly point-blank range.

"No…" She stuttered. "N-no way…" Even the crowd that had gathered around was speechless.

Ruby was too lost in her shock to notice Kirito walking towards her. So when she felt her hand on her shoulder, she gasped and nearly jumped to see the swordsman in front of her.

"I told you – I'm sorry." Kirito said with a faint smile.

For a moment there was silence. Then Ruby croaked, "How? How did you…?"

"No, it wasn't my reflexes." He replied. "If it was then I'd be no less than a demigod. No, it was because I saw your eye through your weapon's scope. Gave me a clue to where you were going to shoot."

"So…" She replied, still a bit pale from shock.. "You knew I was going to shoot you in your left shoulder because that's what I was looking at?"

"Kind of an estimate." Kirito replied calmly. "Though next time maybe try not to be predictable."

Ruby stepped back. Her head fell. In that moment, seeing this girl sad, Kirito somehow felt sorry for her.

"Ahem." They heard someone clear his throat. Ruby looked up to see…

Uh oh. It's Professor Ozpin.

"Now, I mean no harm." He said, looking at Kirito. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to have a word with you please, Mister Swordsman?"

Kirito looked at Ruby, then back at Ozpin again. "Umm…okay." He replied.

"Good. Follow me, please." The headmaster turned to walk towards the academy building.

Kirito took one look behind his shoulder at Ruby before following the headmaster inside.

* * *

"I'm aware that you were able to defeat four of my students in combat this afternoon?" Ozpin said.

"Uh…yeah." Kirito replied. "Where are you going with this?"

Ozpin adjusted his glasses. "During your fight you seem to have demonstrated remarkable skill. I have seen few who measure up to your speed and swordsmanship."

"Uh…thank you?"

"Though, as a matter of fact, I think you would benefit from refining such skills in suitable conditions. So I'd like to offer you an opportunity."

"Opportunity to what, Professor? Study here?" Kirito already knew the answer.

"Indeed, young man." Ozpin smiled. "Though I must warn you that Beacon Academy is a competitive environment. I'm sure you're up to the task?"

Kirito nodded. Great. He was in. But now what?

"Excellent." Ozpin stood up. "Now, the first thing we'll need to worry about is the matter of teams. As you see…" He looked out of the window of his office. "Huntsmen and Huntress-in-training here are divided into official teams of 4."

"So… I need a team too? I don't know about that…" Kirito scratched his head nervously.

"Fortunately, a colleague of mine as offered to arrange for you to be with several friends of yours." Ozpin glanced at the elevators. "In fact… ah, he's here right now."

Kirito turned around to notice another man, younger-looking than Professor Ozpin, wearing armor that reminded him of the games he normally played.

"I believe you have a team in mind for our new student here, Professor Sirius?" Ozpin asked him.

Kirito breathed a sigh of relief. Seth's character was called Sirius!

"Yes. Come, let me introduce you to your new teammates." Sirius replied, gesturing for Kirito to follow him.

* * *

"Made quite a scene back there, didn't you, Kirito?"

"Hey, you said I had to make an entrance."

"Perhaps I was too vague- hold on."

Kirito and Sirius noticed Ruby walking down the hallway by herself. When she noticed them, she looked a bit surprised at first, but then she hastily walked over.

"Oh, um… hello, Professor Sirius…" She squeaked.

"Greetings, Miss Rose. I believe you've met Kirito here before?"

Ruby tried hard not to remember the incident between him and her team. "Uh… I just wanted to say that…Kirito…"

"Mm?" Kirito thought he knew what Ruby was going to say next.

"I'm…sorry for acting out back there. I guess I overreacted a bit." She stuttered.

"Oh…it's nothing." Kirito placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "You fought well – that's the point."

After a while, he went to follow Sirius outside, leaving Ruby standing there still trying to process what happened.

"Now…where were we?" Sirius resumed. "Ah, yes, perhaps I was too vague. I said you needed to do something to grab Ozpin's attention, all right, but really, I wasn't expecting that."

"Just fighting off a horde of Grimm by myself sounded too boring to me." Kirito replied.

"All hail Jesus-kun…" The professor muttered under his breath, then cleared his throat. "Now, about the team thing… fortunately, I was able to invite 3 of your friends to join you in Remnant Online."

"Friends…?" It didn't take long for Kirito to figure out what he meant. "You mean…"

It was at this point that they arrived outside, back to the courtyard. And the duo here ran into 3 girls waiting for them – the "friends" Sirius had mentioned.

"Kirito-kun!"

"Wha…uh…" He'd just remembered what he said to his friends not too long ago.

Standing there was Asuna, Leafa and, the last one a bit more to Kirito's surprise, Sinon.

"I'll leave the four of you alone then." Sirius said then walked away, much to Kirito's chagrin.

"Oh…uh…hey…" Kirito stuttered, trying to come up with an excuse. "What are you guys doing here?"

"I think we should be asking you the same thing." Sinon spoke up. "Kirito, what is this?"

* * *

 **Short? Yeah maybe. It's hard to focus. Please don't judge me.**

 **Stay tuned!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm not sure if it's just me, but it turns out that writing "Bring A World Alive" and at the same time yakking away in a game of Town of Salem seems to help wonders with typing.**

 **Maybe it's because my brain becomes more active. I don't know.**

* * *

"Uh, hi, guys,uh…" Kirito stuttered, seeing his friends. "W-what are you doing here?"

"Well, we're here to…" Leafa replied. "…help you with whatever it is that you're doing."

"And that is?"

It was clear from the girls' faces that it was simply an excuse.

"Well…whatever!" Asuna said. "The point is, why did you move over here without telling us? You lied to us, didn't you?"

"Ok,ok! Guilty as charged!" Kirito waved his arms around. "But, more to the point, why are YOU here?"

"Someone named Nick told us you were helping to test out Remnant Online." Sinon explained. "Apparently, his friend and co-developer Seth was also your friend."

Kirito sighed. He wasn't exactly looking forward to working with these 3 girls, but at least it was better for nothing. At least he wasn't pining for the old days of "Solo Beater".

"Alright, I get it. So you want to play Remnant Online with me? Well, let me explain a few important things first…"

"So, to sum up," Kirito cleared his throat. "We are going to be Huntsmen and Huntress, fighters with special powers known as Semblances and having something called Aura, which is the equivalent of Health. We are going to be training, here at Beacon Academy, as a team of four. Got it?"

The girls nodded their heads. Asuna and Leafa seemed excited, though Kirito wondered if Sinon shared the same degree of anticipation, as all she did after was…

"Wait,wait,wait…" The sniper said. "So we're going to be teams, right? Of four?"

"Yes- oh that reminds me, we need to resolve a very important issue that could very well determine our future here at Beacon Academy."

"Go on…" Asuna said, sharing the curiosity of the other two girls.

"What is our team name going to be?"

Crickets.

…

"You know," Kirito continued. "like RWBY – Ruby-Weiss-Blake-Yang. Stuff like that."

"Oh, that should be easy!" Leafa said. "So we'll just call ourselves-"

"Oh yeah, it also has to allude to a color."

More crickets.

And so, a heated discussion regarding the name of Team SALK began.

Also, I gave that name away for a reason.

"Team KSAL (Crystal)?"

"That sounds a bit generic."

"SALK (Stalker)?"

"Uh…"

"What about SAKL(Shackle)?"

"That doesn't allude to a color…actually, SALK sounds pretty nice. We could use some of the darker color tones, specifically crimson." Kirito said.

"Stalker! I love it!" Leafa exclaimed.

"Wait, first we have to officially create our team using the game's team formation system. Menus, everyone."

With a quick flick of the left hand, everyone brought up their game menu.

"OK, now if you navigate to the profile section, you should find the teams display and if you click on that plus button in the corner of that window…"

There was, however, one rule of teaming that Kirito forgot about…

"…And we're done. Team SALK is a thing now!" Kirito exclaimed after the menu registered them into the team database.

"Wait, hold on guys." Sinon said. "Did you read the Team Guidelines yet?"

Even more cricke **-'YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS'**

"Uhh…guidelines?" Leafa said.

"You know, rules, instructions, stuff like that. Here, I'll read it out for you guys if you want."

One line caught Sinon's eye. "Wait, so…who's going to be the leader?"

Kirito didn't speak up. Actually, he was getting tired of having to lead the group in ALFheim Online. "Anyone else is fine by me", he thought.

"Because in here it says," Sinon continued, "'Officially, the person whose initial is first in the team name…" Kirito noticed a smirk growing across her mouth. "…will be the leader of the team."

It dawned on everyone else who the team leader was going to be. "OK, scratch that. Anyone BUT Sinon." Kirito thought.

"Oh come on, Kirito, why so glum?" Sinon said, still smiling. "You're the one who approved the SALK name after all!"

"Wait," Asuna added. "there's more. Read it."

Sinon turned her attention back to the screen. "The team can have an unofficial leader during battle, but it is the official leader who will represent the team for important matters." She read.

Asuna turned to Kirito. "I guess you're in luck."

"Why didn't I think of that myself?" Kirito thought as he took the AmuSphere off his head. "I don't know RWBY enough to really understand this game well, I suppose."

* * *

The next day…

"Big bro?" Suguha said at breakfast. I've… got a problem."

"Hmm?" Kazuto asked. "What is it?"

* * *

"Rats." Kirito thought to himself as he picked up his phone. "Who's going to take Suguha's place now that she's had to quit Remnant Online?"

He texted Asuna: "Leafa has to quit RNO"

"What?Why?" She replied.

"NVM that, who will replace her?"

"I don't know, maybe ask Seth?"

"Aww, that's unfortunate." Sinon said when Kirito and Asuna informed her about their predicament in-game. "Now what?"

"Should we tell Professor Ozpin?" Asuna asked.

"I don't know – maybe we should. But we should tell Seth first." Kirito replied.

When the team brought the matter to the game's co-developer, he shook his head. "Well, that's a shame. I kinda saw this coming though, so I have a replacement."

"Replacement? Who?" Sinon asked.

Sirius grinned. "You'll have to wait and see. For now, go and see Ozpin about it, will you?"

* * *

 **We're done here.**

 **I know it's been quite a while between uploads. So to compensate for the long wait you guys have had, I've decided to add in a special 'guest' appearance!**

 **Who, you ask? Can't tell ya. But if it helps any, here's a hint: team SALK will still be team SALK.**

 **Stay tuned!**


	5. Chapter 5

**So I'm going to come out and say this if it makes any difference – Remnant Online will no longer be called a VRMMORPG, but simply a VRRPG. Why? This is because of the Realms concept that's going to be explained in this chapter.**

 **Also, I'd like to thank SirSpangler for going out and showing me all the parts where I messed up in the "OP main protagonist" department. It's thanks to their review that also gave me ideas for two new systems, to be explained in the NEXT chapter.**

 **Yeah...sorry.**

 ***start***

The phone rang. She picked it up and saw that the caller ID was "Seth", whom she had heard of making a RWBY-themed VRRPG game. He'd already found a group of 4 testers to play it, meaning she didn't really think she'd be involved in any way. More to the point, she was surprised.

What did Seth need of her now?

She answered. "Hello?"

* **switch** *

On their way to Ozpin's office, Kirito decided to ask Sirius a few questions. "You did say this wasn't an MMO, right? So how do you make it so that multiple players can play at the same time without messing the world up?"

"I'm glad you asked." The professor/co-developer replied. "It's a system we call Realms. Realms are different versions of the world of RWBY, separating groups of players and the lore they impact from one another."

"One can create a Realm, and he or she can set how many players who can play with him in that Realm, where they start on the RWBY timeline, and quite a few other things, too. We did this because a large scale MMO would, as you said, mess the world's lore up."

"What's interesting is that Realms can have completely different stories from one another. You can fight as a hero in one, and as a villain in another, or even as a bystander! Your and other players in the Realm's decision impact how the tale of RWBY in that Realm plays out."

"And this one? You know, the Realm we're in right now?" Asuna asked.

"Well, you can say it's the first public Remnant Online Realm created!"

"OK, I've got it…" Kirito paused for a bit. "…but what about Semblances? The unique powers that each Huntsman and Huntress have? How do you give everyone a suitable Semblance without jumbling things up?"

"Well, remember, this was made with the Seed as well. Nick and I have made a system that analyzes your performance and style of play on other VR games, and we implement that in helping select your Semblance. It also creates a quiz consisting of about a dozen questions, which you likely answered when you began playing, to determine your personality, and thus your Semblance."

"The system selects from a growing list of currently almost half a hundred Semblances for each player – and Nick and I are still hard of work adding in lots more!"

They stopped at the elevator, which they would take up to Professor Ozpin's office. There, Kirito, Asuna and Sinon noticed a girl who was also waiting there. Kirito saw that she had a… petite stature, to say the least.

"Ah, yes, where are my manners?" Sirius cleared his throat, which also made the girl turn around. "Team SALK, meet your new teammate…"

* **switch***

"Karen? You there?"

"Seth? What is it?" Karen wouldn't be surprised if this was about RNO – it was almost the only thing he'd talk about these days.

"One of our testers dropped out."

"Oh. And?"

"I've been looking for a replacement, though honestly it didn't take to olong. Karen, how would you like to be one of the four testers for Remnant Online?"

"Wha…me? But…I'm scared I'll be horrible!"

"Oh come on, I've seen you in GGO before. Ruby Rose would envy your speed! And don't worry about your, uh, complex – you can just transfer your character over, and I'm already sewing up your abilities."

Karen took a breath. Playing a new game wouldn't be so bad. Plus, while she didn't really admit it to anyone, Karen herself was a RWBY fan.

"Alright." She replied. "What do I need to do?"

* **switch** *

"Team SALK, meet your new teammate, LLENN." Sirius introduced the short girl to Kirito, Asuna and Sinon, and LLENN waved shyly.

"That's a…weird name." Asuna noted.

"She reminds me of Gun Gale Online, you know." Kirito said.

"OH MY GOSH! YOU'RE THE PINK DEVIL!"

Kirito and Asuna turned towards Sinon, startled by her sudden burst of admiration. The swordsman also figured out why seeing LLENN returned GGO into his memories.

"You're so much smaller than I thought!" Sinon continued squealing, fully examining LLENN, who actually seemed a little frightened. "No wonder you fit in that suitcase! And your P90, where did y--"

"Alright, Sniper, that's enough." Asuna pulled the excited girl away, just as the elevator arrived.

"I guess your reputation goes before you." Sirius told LLENN as they stepped in.

* **switch** *

After Professor Ozpin acknowledged the formation of team SALK, there was one other thing he said that he wanted them to pay attention to.

"As you can see, all students here at Beacon have had to go through an Initiation trial to prove their worth as Huntsmen and Huntresses, with genuine desires to study here." The headmaster said. "I have seen how strong Kirito can fight by himself, but not once have I witnessed the girls' own combat prowess, less to say how all four of you work together. So, your Initiation begins tomorrow morning, at 9 in the morning."

"I understand, Professor," Kirito, the 'unofficial' leader of team SALK(Sinon would scoff whenever someone brought this up) replied. "But I would like to ask, what will be our task?"

"Well, I shall explain tomorrow. For now, I've reserved a dorm for you on the third floor.( **I don't know what Beacon Academy is like in architectural terms, so I decided to just wing it)** Go and get some rest for tonight - we all know that not one of us wants to see a sleepy student during Initiation."

* **switch** *

"So, Kirito, Asuna, and Sinon..." LLENN repeated after her three teammates had formally introduced themselves to her. "Nice to meet you! And yes, I do play Gun Gale Online. And I'm willing to bet Sinon here watched the Squad Jams too." She tried to mask a tone of bitterness which Kirito and Asuna noticed.

"Oh, and LLENN, can you do me a favor?" Kirito asked.

"Hm? What do you need?"

"I've never really seen you fight before, so, how about a duel? You and me, in the courtyard, in a moment?"

LLENN paused for a bit. She realized that while Sinon could have just told them about the way she ran and shot, LLENN supposed the best way to know someone's full power was to fight them yourself.

"Sure, I don't see why not."

* **switch** *

Ruby was sitting on a bench. She looked over to the spot where a young swordsman named Kirito had challenged her team to a duel, four-to-one. She wondered if he was here right now, at Beacon Academy.

"Ruby!" Yang's voice snapped the reaper out of her thoughts. "Sitting here again?" Behind her were Weiss and Blake, the latter leaning against a nearby tree, clutching a book.

"Oh, uh, hi!" Ruby started. "I, uh, just wanted a little peace, so I came up here."

"Oh come on," Her sister raised an eyebrow. "You're sitting at this exact spot because of that sword guy, aren't ya?"

"Wha...Um, well, partly..."

"Sheesh." Weiss nudged Yang, pointing at the open courtyard. "Speak of the devil."

Sure enough. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang saw the black swordsman they'd fought the other day, standing with his swords out, facing a _small_ girl with a gun.

"Kirito's still here?!" Ruby exclaimed, meriting Blake looking up from her book.

"I think's he's got another duel." Weiss said. "Oh, this'll be interesting."

* **switch** *

"So, care to explain how your gun works?" Kirito asked LLENN as they prepared to battle.

"Well, my gun works just like my beloved P90 from GGO, great for medium and close range combat." She explained. "But when it gets _really_ close, then one or two adjustments and..." She flicked a pin on the side of her gun, and a modestly long bayonet sprang out from under the barrel. "Ta-da!"

Kirito grinned. He knew he dominated melee range, and could easily slash his opponent apart if he got close enough. The one thing he did have to worry about was actually hitting LLENN.

And from what he'd heard, this girl was fast.

 ***switch***

OK, but in his defense, he didn't think her to be _that_ fast.

LLENN kept dodging nimbly away from Kirito's swipes and stabs, occasionally suffering from a scratch or two, and at one moment a hefty slash to the left of her torso.

On the other hand, Kirito himself was blocking and avoiding rather a lot of LLENN's shots, and reacted very quickly to every big move she made - though he had some hit marks himself.

"That girl's fast, I have to admit." Blake said as Team RWBY observed the duel from afar.

Finally, Kirito spotted a huge opening, for LLENN had been jumping in a slightly predictable way, and didn't waste a second to capitalize upon it. He leapt forward, poised to deliver a stab. Realizing her mistake, LLENN unloaded a hail of bullets towards him as a last resort, and did succeed in almost bringing his Aura down to the defeat threshold before he reached her.

Of course, almost doesn't mean enough. A quick stab to her arm set up a prime opportunity to send LLENN flying with a combo, and seize it, Kirito did.

Eventually he stopped, and panted. The top right corner of his screen showed LLENN's Aura bar dropping quickly to the red line. He smiled. She was good, and it was a hard fought-

But then LLENN's body flashed, and suddenly dissolved into lines zipping right behind him. And Kirito suddenly realized that the Pink Devil was nearly at the same healthy state she was in a dozen seconds or so ago, for her Aura bar had retraced it's steps and showed LLENN's Aura at almost half, a bit less than she once was.

Then Kirito felt the tip of a gun touch the back of his head. "Jackpot." LLENN grinned.

"Life is cruel." He thought before going on to lose the duel.

* **end** *

 **Alright, please do pardon the *switches* used as a replacement for the horizontal lines I usually use to separate bits of the chapter. I'm actually writing part of this on a tablet, and I have zero clue how you make horizontal lines on this thing. AND THE HYPHENS WON'T STICK.**

 **I'll explain team SALK's Semblances in the next chapter, along with two new systems and the Initiation of team SALK. But if you're itching to know just one, then yes, LLENN just pulled a Tracer.**

 **Stay tuned!**


	6. Chapter 6

**So, last chapter I did say I would explain the Semblances of team SALK, and also two new systems for the game. Well, forget the latter - I decided to actually add only one, which I'll call "Adaptive Difficulty." It will be shown in action this chapter, but I figured now would be the perfect time to give you an idea of our protagonists' powers.**

 **Kirito - Light Blade: His swords are ethereal, right? Now, Kirito's Semblance allows him to summon one or two swords to fight, and yes, he's better with dual blades. The catch, of course, is that while using only one sword is of no consequence, dual wielding slowly drains Kirito's Aura. So he has to limit his aggression until he finds an opening, like I _forgot to add when Kirito fought LLENN._ My bad.**

 **Asuna - Spectre: Asuna's Semblance allows her to summon a stationary specter - nope, they can't fight like Blake's clones - which persist for a while, and she can teleport back to the exact location of these specters. Do remember that only one Spectre can exist at a time, but nevertheless this Semblance gives Asuna some excellent combo potential.**

 **Sinon - Deadshot: Sinon can use her Semblance to take control of the next bullet she fires and direct its movement. So her sniper rounds can zigzag and clear out groups of enemies even if they're not lined up.**

 **LLENN - Rewind: And it had to be poor Kirito who was the first to see all his effort, blasted away in seconds by LLENN's Semblance. LLENN can rewind to a recent point in time and restore most of her Aura, repositioning her at the previous spot. Note that I said most - _Semblances cost Aura, after all._ It wouldn't be profitable for Sinon to control every bullet she fired, or for LLENN to Rewind every time she took damage. In fact, the latter using her Semblance when she has taken too little damage could cost her _more_ Aura than if she'd just dealt with it.**

 **And yes, Rewind is another version of Recall.**

 ***start***

Kirito saw a tall tree amongst the thick of the Emerald Forest, summoned a sword, and stabbed it in the trunk of the tree, praying that the friction would be enough to stop his falling before he hit the ground.

 _"Your objective," Ozpin explained to team SALK. "will be to recover a single relic located in the ruins of Emerald Forest. You four will be dropped alone, each at separate places, and must regroup before you can collect the relic."_

Finally, Kirito landed, and pulled his sword out. He managed to catch his breath for several seconds before he heard growling. A small group of Beowolves had surrounded him.

"Great." He thought. "Not a minute into this and I already have to fight."

*switch*

Sinon had the fortune of having landed nearest to the ruins, no more than a mile away. She decided to camp on a tree, with her sniper rifle out, to watch for any of her teammates, pick off Grimm and watch for signals.

Asuna, meanwhile, had more fortune than Kirito when it came to Grimm encounters, but nevertheless ended up meeting an Ursa after a short walk.

LLENN took off a moment after landing, having calculated her direction. She would run near the ruins, but not straight to it, to wait for her allies.

While she ran though, she spotted a red specter standing by itself. If LLENN couldn't have found it odd enough, upon closer inspection she saw that it resembled Asuna. Was this a horribly performed trap?

She got her answer when Asuna herself suddenly appeared, standing right where the specter had been. This caused LLENN to yelp in surprise, which in turn also made Asuna to turn and point her rapier at LLENN.

"Oh, it's you!" Asuna breathed a sigh of relief when she recognized LLENN. "Mind helping me out?"

"With what?" LLENN tried to ask, but then she saw the Ursa that Asuna was fighting crash through the bushes. "Oh."

*switch*

"What's going on in there?" Yang asked her team when RWBY walked by the ballroom.

"Apparently there's a new team attending Beacon." Blake explained. "Their Initiation is taking place right now, and of course not everyone wanted to miss it."

"Hey!" Ruby exclaimed. "That's the swordsman guy! And the girl he fought yesterday, and..."

"Well," Weiss said after Ruby had pointed out all members of team SALK. "if you're so interested, then perhaps we could go in there and watch it ourselves? Personally, I would like to see how good these...people really are."

*switch*

Sinon was surveying her environment - a whole lot of trees, a couple of Beowolves, an Ursa or two - when she heard a noise. She turned to see a tree falling down, and assumed that there was a collision between her team and Grimm.

Kirito had seen it, too, and was running towards the fight. The ruckus had stopped by the time Kirito arrived, and when he emerged from bushes he saw Asuna and LLENN standing triumphant over an Ursa, which dissolved not long after.

"Kirito!" Asuna noticed Kirito, ran over, and to LLENN's surprise, hugged him.

"Wha...A-Asuna!" Kirito stuttered. "This isn't the time to be showing affection!"

"Oh!" She released him. "Sorry, I get excited sometimes."

LLENN was still surprised as they made their way towards the ruins. "You two are _lovers_?"

Kirito shrugged. "We met in a game that we played for two years. Things escalated from there."

"...OK."

Unfortunately, when the team neared the ruins, they ran into another pack of Beowolves. "It never ends." Kirito muttered as the trio readied their weapons.

But then the Grimm started dropping, one by one, from a bullet that seemed to be moving _between_ the Beowolves, eliminating the entire pack.

Asuna knew at once who did it. "Sinon!" She called out. "Are you there?"

Sinon dropped down from her tree. "Finally! Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting here?"

LLENN raised an eyebrow. "You've been camping?"

"Well, duh. I'm a sniper, after all, and it was just my luck that I landed nearest to the ruins. So I decided that there was no better option than to wait."

LLENN shrugged. "Words from the Bullet of Bullets co-champion, I guess. Anyway, the ruins are just right up there, so I suppose we should hurry."

*switch*

When team SALK arrived at the relic site, a stone-floored clearing beside a small mountain, Kirito spotted a knife, stuck into the base of a pedestal. "Hey!" He cried. "I think we found it!"

"Really?" Sinon said. "I thought the so called "relic" would look a bit more... interesting than a knife on a pedestal."

"Oh come on Sinon, don't spoil the fun. I doubt anyone would randomly go out of their way to stick a knife on pieces of stone like this. Not to mention put it out on an open field for everyone to see... Definitely our goal." Kirito replied, pulling out the knife.

"OK, so now we just need to shoot up a flare for extraction..." LLENN said. "Oh, and by the way, anyone noticed how suitable this place looks for a boss battle?"

Just then, a rumbling shook the ground beneath team SALK's feet, and a loud roar was heard. Kirito, Asuna and Sinon all shot LLENN looks.

"Uh..." The petite gunner stuttered. "I...didn't mean to jinx us!"

Soon, their opponent emerged from a large cave opening at the bottom of the mountain.

It was a Death Stalker. A _huge_ Death Stalker.

As if to confirm its' status as the final boss of the Initiation, a large health bar appeared at the top of team SALK's HUDs, labeled "Death Stalker".

"Well, nothing's truly free, I suppose." Asuna said as she and the other team members drew their weapons, staring down the scorpion Grimm.

*switch*

"Go, team SALK!" Ruby's yell startled her team, who all turned to look at her.

"I didn't think you would be..." Blake commented. "...enthusiastic."

"Well, I just thought that since Kirito is going to start studying here with us, we might as well cheer for him while he's at it, tackling the Initiation challenge. Hey, who doesn't love having more friends?"

"But...there aren't exactly a lot of people cheering for them..." Weiss pointed out.

"Don't be silly, Weiss, that's because there aren't a lot of people who are watching this!" Ruby suddenly grabbed the heiress' arm and raised it. "Come on, guys! With me! GO, TEAM SALK!"

"Ow, ow, ow, Ruby you're hurting me!"

*switch*

"Hey, I got it!" Kirito yelled over the chaotic noise of battle. "Cut its stinger loose! Drop it on the Grimm's own head!"

"Oh, now you tell us?" Asuna snapped. "We've been here getting our asses handed to us and it took you, the most experienced with RWBY in our group, a full minute to find this thing's one sore weakness?"

Indeed, while the Death Stalker had sustained quite a bit of damage from team SALK's efforts, the huntsman-and-huntresses group had taken several hits themselves - LLENN, notably, had lost nearly half her Aura, due in part to a slightly reckless initial approach.

"Just..." Kirito sighed. "Try to distract it, and I'll slash its stinger off,OK?" Then, swords in hand, he charged.

It was a long and slightly hard battle, but eventually the golden stinger fell and crushed the Death Stalker's skull, ending the boss battle and team SALK's Initiation challenge.

*switch*

"And yet the system considered that one 'Easy'." Sirius commented when he met up with team SALK. "I think the system decided to implement Challenge Bosses early."

"'Easy'?" LLENN wondered. "There's a difficulty system in this game?"

"'Adaptive Difficulty', if you will." Sirius said. "You've got 5 difficulties:Beginner, Easy, Intermediate, Hard and Expert. The system assesses your skills to automatically pick the most suitable one, though of course you can always go and pick one yourself."

"What about that Death Stalker?" Asuna inquired. "You sound like it was harder than it was supposed to be."

The co-developer shrugged. "Yes, well, I suppose Remnant Online hasn't been out for very long, so I admit there are a few bugs here and there. I'll have that version of the Death Stalker boss packed off to Normal difficulty, where it belongs."

"Wait," Kirito chimed in. "So I defeated team RWBY so easily back there because the system thought I couldn't?"

"Mm, something like that. It's always the easiest difficulty when you first play. Anyway..."

They arrived at team SALK's dorm. "Here's your room. Gotta go now, bye!" Sirius raised a hand, hurrying off in the other direction.

"You guys unpack." Kirito said. "I've got someone I want to visit." This merited eyebrows being raised by the rest of team SALK, but none of the girls seemed to care much.

The swordsman soon found himself accosting another student - whom he swiftly recognized as Jaune Arc, leader of team JNPR - to ask him for directions to RWBY's dorm.

"Excuse me, J- uhh, do you happen to know the way to where team RWBY are staying?"

"Huh?" Jaune seemed surprised. "Oh, actually, you're lucky - it's just straight down that way, take the first right, and 3rd door to your left."

"Thanks." Kirito blurted out and resumed walking.

Eventually he reached the door of team RWBY's dorm, and he could faintly overhear a conversation inside.

"...and the way he just zipped around slashing that Death Stalker and cutting its stinger off, it was just like when he beat us yest-"

"Ruby," Kirito heard a voice interrupt the reaper, which he assumed was Weiss'. "please do not berate our own team in the name of admiration for a new student."

"She has a point." Blake added. "We've only known him through watching him fight, between our battle with him and the Initiation challenge. Though to be fair... team SALK are all pretty formidable."

"Yeah, especially that little pink girl with the gun." Yang said. "She's almost as fast as our Ruby, maybe even _as_ fast, and that Semblance she had felt a bit unfair. LLENN, I think that's what she's called...weird name..."

Knock knock. The sound at the door made team RWBY jump.

"Wha...who's there?" Ruby asked as she approached the door.

"It's Kirito!" RWBY heard on the other side of the door. Immediately Weiss, Blake and Yang shot each other looks, but Ruby flung the door and, to everyone's shock, embraced the swordsman.

"Kirito!" She squealed. "You were AWESOME! We saw your team's Initiaton!"

"Uh,thanks...?" Kirito replied, having been unaware that SALK had an audience.

"Ooh, my little sister, hugging a boy..." Yang said slyly.

Ruby flushed furiously, released Kirito, and jumped back. "Y-Yang!"

"OK, uh... can I come in now?" Kirito asked. "I hope you don't mind if I wanted to know team RWBY a bit more."

"Oh, it's fine." Blake replied, sitting down on one of the bunk beds. "Actually, we want to know more about you."

*switch*

Kirigaya Kazuto lifted the VR headset off his head. It was getting close to dinnertime, so when Kirito returned to his team's dormitory, they decided to call it a day and log out.

He had, however, made a suggestion - that all of team SALK, in real life, would go out for dinner tomorrow evening, so that he, Asuna and Shino could be introduced to the real LLENN - and vice versa.

Now looking forward to the next evening, Kirito walked outside of his room.

 ***switch***

 **And AVADA KEDAVRA to chapter 6! I've been upping my standard lately - 2k words instead of 1k, which was inspired when I saw the word count of the last chapter.**

 **Next time: Team SALK meet each other in real life! Woo! Karen! Height surprises! Life outside the** **game! And a legit narrated fight! (I hope...)** **Also yes, I'm still writing on a tablet. Been traveling a lot lately.** **Stay tuned!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Alright, now I'm back on a computer and unfortunately am too lazy to fix the *switches* I used in place of horizontal lines in the last 2 chapters. One of these days, though.**

 **Also yes, I read Harry Potter.**

* * *

"What time is it?" Kazuto asked.

"Quarter to five." Asuna replied. "She still isn't here yet."

"I dunno, maybe she got lost or something." Shino said.

A twist of events had led the real-life team SALK to gather instead in the afternoon air of a humble café. Kirigaya Kazuto found refuge from the boredom of waiting for LLENN by silently observing the comings and goings of the shop's patrons.

There was a hasty man wearing a suit, a small family, a casually-dressed, tall woman, a pair of-

"Hang on." Kazuto nudged Asuna.

"What?"

"I think that woman is heading towards us."

Indeed, a few seconds later she was standing next to the fourth, empty chair at team SALK's table. Kazuto thought that if this really was LLENN, she was a stark contrast to her in-game self, who was practically a dwarf compared to the other members of the team. He wondered whether this difference was intentional.

She cleared her throat. "Umm...I'm here to meet 3 of my friends that I met in a VR game, and I was wondering if..."

She didn't need to continue; Asuna had already risen from her seat and held out a hand. "Yup, that us. Welcome to team SALK(Stalker), LLENN!"

"Please, call me Karen." She smiled, shook Asuna's hand, and sat down.

"Karen, if you don't mind me saying so..." Shino spoke up. "You're kinda tall. Unlike, you know, your Remnant Online character."

Karen shrugged. "It's the random appearance generation from GGO, bless it. I've had a...complex about my height, actually, so I thoroughly enjoyed playing as a cute little girl!"

"Ah, hang on," Kazuto said. "We haven't introduced ourselves yet, the three of us. I'm Kirigaya Kazuto, or Kirito!"

"Nice to meet you," Karen smiled. "And...?"

"Asuna Yuuki." Asuna replied.

"That's-hang on, isn't 'Asuna' also your in-game name?"

The fencer simply rolled her eyes while Shino finished, "Asada Shino, or Sinon. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"The pleasure's all mine."

"OK, then, I suppose that'll be enough..." Kirito said as their drinks arrived. "Now..."

* * *

"Mind telling us a bit about yourself?"

The question startled Kirito slightly. He wasn't exactly expecting to be in team RWBY's dorm this long, nor did he think they would actually want to know more about them, especially considering that their first impression was a bit...well, rough.

"Uh, about me?" He repeated Ruby's question. "Tell you what, exactly?"

"You know..." Weiss added. "Your powers in detail, your motivations for becoming a Huntsman, your...backstory."

Kirito hadn't thought much of that. He could, of course, tell them what had really happened in the last 3 years, which was the only material he could come up with, but he wasn't keen on breaking the fourth wall and informing team RWBY that they were in a game. So he had to do quite a bit of editing.

"Well, if you want to know my past, I suppose I'll tell you that first." Kirito straightened himself up. "A few years ago, 10 thousand people were trapped without warning, within a giant floating island with 100 floors, which they had entered thinking it would be good practice for fighting, or entertainment, or other reasons. I was one of them."

"Each floor was like a miniature world, with settlements and dungeons filled with monsters - I don't remember if there were any Grimm in there. Every floor had an extremely strong monster, which held the key to unlocking the next floor. To escape, we had to advance through all 100 floors."

"And it was hard. I saw many friends I made within that island die. It was difficult, trying to hang on and stay determined for 2 years. Even worse, people weren't just being killed by the monsters - there were a minority, they were murderers, who tried to slay anyone who wasn't allied with them. In the end, of the 10 thousand people who went in that island, more than 4 thousand of them never made it out alive."

"But we did it, and I'll admit that the experience, along with the people I met along the way, it changed my life forever." Kirito paused, sighed, then resumed. "I met the rest of my team in there. Especially Asuna... I'd never experienced love first-hand until we crossed paths."

He paused again. Now, that was a fib, but not an outright lie. Indeed, he only encountered Sinon in Gun Gale Online, months after the events of Sword Art Online, and it wasn't until their meeting a few days ago that Kirito and LLENN had ever met. But he thought that if it weren't for SAO, he wouldn't have bonded so deeply with Asuna.

"The whole ordeal left behind many bad memories, but there were good ones as well. I guess I kind of missed the thrill of fighting, so I decided to become a Huntsman, and went here to Beacon. All in all, I'd taken a very different path than I thought I would when I was a kid."

Kirito stopped there, and for the first time he saw team RWBY's reactions to his story. Weiss was covering her mouth, her eyes wide. Blake was shaking her head in disbelief. Yang seemed to be fidgeting uncomfortably. Ruby...

There was an audible bump, and a thud - Ruby's cup of coffee had fallen off the table and spilled onto the floor.

"Oh!...I'm sorry..." She quickly grabbed a tissue. "I was shaking a bit too much...Hang on, I'll clean it up..." Kirito's story seemed to have hit her particularly hard. Realizing the change in mood, he quickly changed the subject. "Uh, that's also how I unlocked my Semblance...Let me explain.

"So today, we've got double History first with Professor Oobleck...then Combat with Professor Port..."

Being team SALK's "official" team leader, Sinon had taken the liberty of reviewing their new semester class schedule ("You're just in time for Volume 2!" Sirius told them). While they came in a bit late compared to the other first-years, Kirito, Asuna, Sinon and LLENN had proven unusually knowledgeable of what they apparently missed in the first semester (God bless the Internet), which was good enough for Ozpin to let them skip ahead to everyone else's level - including team RWBY's.

"...And finally we've got...Strategy? That's a new one." Sinon said as the team headed downstairs. "And it's taught by Sirius, too, so that's something to look forward to."

"If all goes well, at breakfast this morning there'll be a food fight." LLENN joked.

Kirito laughed. "You can tell there's something wrong with the cafeteria food when they make for legitimate weapons."

* * *

"So," Sirius said once the class had settled down. "Welcome to Strategy! I'm here to teach you on the kind of mindset you should be having while you're fighting."

"Now, why Strategy? It goes without saying that nothing's free in life. Not every Grimm you encounter is going to rush at you looking like moving target practice. You don't often see a Huntsman or Huntress with obvious downsides that you can exploit easily. So, by the end of the day, I want you to be able to locate and hit your opponent's weaknesses, and protect your own. Simple as that."

"There are two core things (he held up two fingers) that we will cover this semester. The first is positioning, or where you stand and move during battle. Basically, if you let yourself get backed into a corner with nowhere to go but the danger zone that is forward...well...you suck."

A few chortles were heard rippling throughout the room. Kirito knew too well that Sirius was all for humor.

"Second, we will learn about striking without being countered. Personally, I've always preferred being the proactive one in combat. Of course, not everyone here is the same as me. But let's pretend you're defensive, and you face an opponent who does the same. Awkward, isn't it, two people, none daring to attack the other? So I want you to be able to break that stalemate. Now, I have nothing against a well-timed riposte, but no one wants a fight to drag on forever because none of the combatants are getting finished off."

"That's all you need to know about learning Strategy - now here's a taste." Sirius walked over to a large metal crate set up near the edge of the small fighting ring in front of his desk. "See this?" He indicated the crate. "Professor Port has kindly provided me with a Boarbatusk, which I'll use to see how you fight. He's also informed me that a few of you have already fought this species of Grimm before."

"Which is good. Now, who can tell me what's the best place to strike at a Boarbatusk?"

Several hands shot up. Sirius surveyed the students before... "Hmm... Miss Schnee?"

Weiss stood up. "Professor, the most notable part of the Boarbatusk is its underside, as it is unarmored unlike the rest of the body."

"Excellent!" Sirius said approvingly. "Now, I have here a challenge:One of you is going to stand inside this ring, on the opposite side of the Boarbatusk. When I let the Grimm out, you have to slay it. The catch? You're timed - if you kill the Boarbatusk in less than 15 seconds, you get a bonus. Who's up?"

Kirito's hand, along with a considerable amount of others, were raised into the air.

"Hmm...OK, I have an idea..." Sirius opened a compartment in his desk, took out what appeared to be a throwing knife, and turned to a seating chart behind him. "Now, I'm not the best at throwing stuff, but I think that's good for occasions like this." And he launched the knife into the paper chart pinned on the wall.

"Let's see..." He muttered, observing the chart with the knife stuck in it. "Our lucky one will be...Kirito!"

Kirito shrugged and stood up.

"Ah don't worry, he'll be fine." Asuna reassured LLENN after seeing the slightly concerned look on her face. "He's had more than two years to hone his skills, after all."

Facing the metal crate with the Boarbatusk within it, Kirito summoned his blue ethereal sword.

"You ready?" Sirius said, now holding a stopwatch, and his harpoon gun, hooked to the crate's lock.

Kỉrito nodded.

"Alright then, releasing in 3...2...1...GO!" And he yanked the lock open, stepped back, and at once the boar Grimm emerged from the crate."

Remembering the timer, and the fact that Sirius preferred to be proactive in combat, Kirito charged.

"Try to make it fall over!" Asuna yelled.

The Boarbatusk reacted by curling up, and beginning to roll quickly in place, before propelling itself at Kirito.

"They're going to crash!" Ruby gasped.

"No, only the Boarbatusk will, you dunce!" Weiss said irritably. "Kirito's feinting!"

She was right - Kirito had stopped at the last few seconds, leaping to his left, dragging his sword along the ground. Whatever he had in mind seemed to work, for the rolling Boarbatusk collided with the end of Kirito's ethereal sword, causing it to lose its momentum, spreading out and landing on its back.

"Now!" LLENN shouted. "Finish it!"

Kirito summoned his red sword on his left hand, leapt at and drove both swords into the Grimm's exposed stomach.

The Grimm squirmed for a second, then dissolved.

"Time!" Sirius smiled. "Well done Kirito, it seems you took my advice to heart. Your time is..."

Most of the room held its breath - Kirito, Asuna, Sinon and LLENN could guess the result from the look of Sirius' face,

"13 seconds. Excellent!" Sirius clapped, and soon quite a few in the room joined in the applause. Kirito was rather surprised to see team RWBY among those cheering.

"Well then, that'll be a bonus point in the scorebook for...you're part of team SALK?...yes, one point for all four of your members, I suppose, because the rest of your team were pretty supportive. Now..."

The class spent the rest of the lesson discussing their idea of good positioning ("Never clump up unless you're doing some kind of special team attack" Kirito commented) and before anyone knew it, the bell had rang. The students all left chatting excitedly.

"Wait!" Sirius called after Kirito, Asuna, Sinon and LLENN. "A word with you, please."

Team SALK looked at each other, then at the other students, before moving towards the Strategy professor.

"So," Sirius asked, drumming his fingers on his desk. "How're you feeling so far?"

"Well," LLENN started, "I'm liking how we can skip lessons where a player teacher isn't present - not everyone has time for a full RWBY school day - but the one thing I think we can improve is the overall excitement value of a normal day in Remnant Online - either we get to skip to events, or throw in something interesting every now and then."

"Gotcha." Sirius replied. "Anything else? If so, save 'em for tomorrow - I'm busy now, but you can ask Professor Nidus - that's Nick - at Geography. Man, I always thought that was a boring subject, especially in a game..."

There was not much else, really. As soon as team SALK had returned to their dorm, they logged out - except for Kirito.

Visiting team RWBY was, for some reason, becoming quite a habit of his. Yang often teased that he was becoming attached to Ruby, since that was who Kirito talked to the most in the team.

Perhaps she's right, Kirito thought, as he knocked on the door of team RWBY's dorm.

"Who's there?" Blake's voice rang from inside.

"It's me!" Kirito answered.

It was Weiss who opened the door "Oh, hi Kirito - Ruby's been downstairs in the library to return some books, and I think she'll be back soon." She gestured into the dorm. "Why don't you come in? I thought you were coming around, so I put on the kettle for some tea and coffee."

* * *

 **Well, that's over with, isn't it? Haven't much to say, except that I just started a new story called "Within The System", a RWBY X Warframe crossover that I recommend you check out. Man, about 150 views, 11 followers and 5 reviews in 3 days...that's got to be a record for any newly published fanfiction of mine.**

 **Stay tuned!**


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